China Investment Corporation (CIC), the world’s biggest sovereign wealth investor said 2012 was a much better year for the $482-billion fund, with returns of over 10 percent. “2012 was a much easier year than 2011 and the returns are much better,” Chairman and Chief Executive of CIC, Lou Jiwei said. “[T]he final numbers have not come out…but we are confident our returns will be over 10 percent.”
Double digit returns would be a big turnaround for the fund, which suffered its first ever decline in profits in 2011. Net profit declined 6.1 percent in 2011 to $48.4 billion compared to 2010………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China’s sovereign wealth fund hopes to reduce its reliance on purchases of U.S. Treasurys and boost investments in other assets as the U.S. economic recovery makes U.S. government debt less attractive, the Shanghai Securities News reported Tuesday, citing the fund’s head.
The report cited China Investment Corp. Chairman Lou Jiwei as telling a conference in Hong Kong that the fund would like to add more stocks to its portfolio. He didn’t provide a definite time frame for any investment shift, merely saying that over the long run the attractiveness of U.S. debt would diminish………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China Investment Corp, or CIC, is to balance out its portfolio this year, as a China-led global recovery mitigates risks, said CIC Chairman Lou Jiwei on Monday. The nation’s sovereign wealth fund wants to stick closely to its investment guidelines after it “under-bought” in Europe and “over-bought” in the United States and emerging markets in 2012 in response to global economic uncertainties.
“Our view is that 2013 will see a slow recovery … but there won’t be bright highlights, so we have decided to go back to having balance,” said Lou at the annual Asia Financial Forum in Hong Kong………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Daimler AG is not aware of China Investment Corp’s (CIC) plans to take a stake in the company and is not in talks with CIC, Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche told reporters at the Detroit auto show on Monday.
Zetsche also said Daimler was in talks with China’s BAIC Group about its role in an initial public offering of BAIC’s passenger car unit………………………………………..Full Article: Source

As India firms ups its plans to set up a multi-billion dollar sovereign wealth fund (SWF) to finance big-ticket investment projects, the finance ministry is simultaneously working on a plan to channelise investments from the 30-plus sovereign wealth funds across the world to facilitate greater foreign direct investment (FDI) into India’s infrastructure sector.
The government has already planned periodic road shows for attracting investments from big international investors and sovereign funds across the world, said sources. As much as $5 trillion is staked in these 30-odd global SWFs with Abu Dhabi having the biggest wealth fund with a corpus of over $600 billion………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund will boost investments in emerging-market securities and yuan-denominated assets after posting its second-highest annual investment income on record.
The fund’s 4.4 percent return on investments last year brought income of HK$108.6 billion ($14 billion), Hong Kong Monetary Authority Chief Executive Norman Chan said at a briefing in the city yesterday. That compared with a 1.1 percent gain in 2011 and the 5.6 percent annual average return since 1994, according to a statement by the HKMA………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Australian Infrastructure Fund shareholders approved a deal to sell the company’s assets, including interests in airports across the country and in Europe, to Australia’s sovereign wealth fund for $2 billion.
Preliminary, or proxy votes, cast ahead of a meeting in Melbourne today showed 88 per cent of shareholders were in favour of the deal, while 10 per cent were against. “The proxies cast ahead of the meeting do appear to have carried the matter,” company chairman Paul Espie said at the meeting………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A rainy day fund managed by Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) had assets currently worth more than $261 billion at the end of March last year, a local newspaper reported on Sunday citing a government audit.
Kuwait, one of the world’s richest countries per capita, puts a percentage of its annual revenues into the Future Generations Fund, a nest egg for when oil supplies diminish or for when the economy suffers other shocks………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Strong oil prices along with high output boosted the assets of the UAE’s sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) to all time high of around $451 billion at the end of 2012, according to a key Western financial group. The country’s oil export earnings also soared to their highest level of more than $124 billion, pushing its current account balance to a new peak.
Figures by the Washington-based Institute for International Finance (IIF) showed the assets of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and other SWFs in the second largest Arab economy gained nearly $25 billion in 2012 to end the year at $451 billion………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Nigerian government through the ingenuity of the current finance minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the approval of President Goodluck Jonathan has just established the National Sovereign Wealth Fund (NSWF) last year.
Financial pundits have already described the establishment of the Nigeria’s National Sovereign Wealth Fund as the most significant economic policy decision to have been taken by President Jonathan since coming into office as an elected President in May 2011. What is sovereign wealth fund and why is this a human right if one may ask?……………………………………….Full Article: Source